Leslie Louise Van Houten (born August 23, 1949) is a former member of Charles Manson's "Family" who has served 44 years in prison for the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Van Houten was initially convicted at the main Charles Manson trial. At trial Van Houten repeatedly dismissed defense lawyers for blaming her actions on Manson's control over her. She also confessed to a murder she had not committed in an attempt to clear Manson.

Van Houten, two other women, and Manson were sentenced to be executed, but death penalties in the state were later commuted to life imprisonment. Due to the death of her lawyer during the trial, she was granted a re-trial at which the asserted defence was diminished responsibility from chronic use of hallucinogens having made her susceptible to Manson's influence. The jury could not agree on a verdict. At a third trial she was again convicted of two murders and given a life sentence. In relation to her case courts ruled that in deciding to deny parole, the crime committed by an inmate could outweigh any evidence of their subsequent reform. Predictions have been made by former prosecutors in her case that her two murder convictions might not prevent her being released, although that would be without precedent in California.

Van Houten grew up in a middle-class family, and had a conventional background although her father is said to have identified himself as an alcoholic. She had an older brother, and an adopted younger brother and sister, who were Korean. Van Houten was initially a regular churchgoer. Her parents were divorced when she was 14, the same year she began a relationship with an older man and had an abortion. She also began taking LSD, Benzedrine and hashish at around 15, running away to Haight-Ashbury with her boyfriend for a time, but returning to complete high school. She had a period of interest in yoga and took a year long secretarial course, but broke with her boyfriend and became a hippy, living at a commune.[2][3][4][5]

Delinquent from an early age, during his late teens Manson had been released from an institution to live with relatives in a West Virginia town, where though generally regarded as a criminal braggart, some law abiding people found him very likeable.[6] Manson had a brief marriage to "a cute popular girl" between prison terms, before a spell as a pimp ended with a ten year sentence that like the rest of his 17 years incarcerated was largely because of his propensity for breaking Federal law especially in relation to stolen cars(comparable crimes would have brought him no more than 5 years total in state courts).[7] His IQ was well above average.[6][7][8] In prison Manson went through enthusiasms for alternative philosophies like Scientology and Buddhism, and requested a transfer to Leavenworth (considered one of the harshest penitentiaries), because he said he would get fewer complaints about his guitar practicing there.[9] In 1967 he completed the sentence and, protesting that prison was his home, Manson was released aged 32.[10][11] He aspired to success as a singer-songwriter. In Berkeley, Manson met and moved in with 23-year-old library assistant Mary Brunner, who author Vincent Bugliosi described as "singularly unattractive" and probably never courted before.[10] Brunner introduced Manson to environmentalist thought, which he incorporated with material drawn from his prison studies to present himself as a guru, denouncing American competitive consumer society.[6] Manson preached the positive values of nature, sex, children, and how everything in life ought to be fun. He was successful in gathering a small group of young largely female devotees, mainly from broken middle-class homes.[6]

After a few months in a commune in northern California, Van Houten met Catherine Share and Bobby Beausoleil and moved in with them and another woman during the summer of 1968. The four broke up after jealous arguments, and Share left to join Charles Manson's commune. Van Houten, then aged 19, followed Share. At this time she phoned her mother to say she was dropping out and would not be making contact again.[2] Manson's ideas in 1968 were similar to the cultural utopianism that circulated throughout the hippie subculture that Van Houten moved in. Manson's 'Family' which maintained itself by freeloading and eating out of garbage bins, which was presented as a form of environmentalism. They also went without washing facilities. Manson decided when they would eat, sleep and have sex, and with who they would have sex. He also controlled the taking of LSD, giving followers larger doses than he himself took. According to him "When you take LSD enough times you reach a state of nothing , of no thought".[12] According to Van Houten, she became 'saturated in acid' and could not grasp the existence of those living a non-psychedelic reality.[6][13][14]

From August 1968 they were based at the Spahn Ranch. Manson ostensibly ran his 'Family' based on hippie-style principles of acceptance and free love. But at the remote ranch, where they were isolated from any other influences, no other opinion but his was heard. At every meal he would lecture repetitively. Van Houten said Manson's attitude to her was she "belonged to Bobby", who was valued by Manson, because of his musical gifts and contacts and recruiting of girls who could be sexually exploited.[15][16][17][18] According to Van Houten, she and other Manson followers looked to 14-year-old 'Family' member Dianne Lake as the "empty vessel" epitomie of what women were supposed to be in the Manson system of values.[4] Van Houten's position in the Manson 'Family' was interpreted as her being a "leader" by Barbara Hoyt, when Hoyt spoke at Van Houten's parole hearing in 2013.[3][19]

Manson's preoccupation was with becoming a pop star. Between June 1967 and August 8, 1968 he had a number of recording sessions but was not thought promising enough for a contract. Manson however saw himself as a musical genius who would transform mainstream society, which he identified with the subject of the Beatles song Piggies, through a world-shaking pop album he would record.[4][20] Influenced by the bible, Manson taught the Family would be joined by the Beatles, and escape to a bottomless pit, which they could enter through a 'hole in the ground'.[20] They would emerge and be acknowledged as the rightful rulers after 150 years at the center of the earth, where the family would have grown in number to 144,000 and their bodies taken on new forms.[3][21]:238–44[22][23]

By April 1969 Manson had involved followers in criminal activity such as auto theft and residential burglaries, and Van Houten (who burgled her father's home twice) had been arrested and spent a few days in jail. The same month Manson shot an African American man in a drugs dispute, and became increasingly paranoid about Black Panthers exacting vengeance. Preparations for violence included Tex Watson demonstrating how to kill with a knife.[3][17][18]

Manson, who denied responsibility, has never explained his motive for moving from aspiring pop star to orchestrating murderer. At the trial, and in a best selling book, the prosecutor suggested Manson was attempting to start a racial civil war.[21]:311–2 The racial or irrational nature of the motive for the murders Van Houten was convicted of was later adduced by a judge increasing the gravity of her offence.[3][17][18]

Gary Hinman, a musician who Manson was acquainted with, was held captive and murdered on July 27, 1969. According to testimony by Mary Brunner at Bobby Beausoleil's trial, Beausoleil killed Hinman because he would not join Manson's rock band.[24][25] The words "Political piggy" were written on a wall in Hinman's blood. On August 6, 1969 Beausoleil was arrested in possession of Hinman's car and the bloody murder weapon. On August 8 Brunner was arrested for credit card fraud. That evening Manson ordered the deaths of everyone living at the former residence of record producer Terry Melcher, who had raised and then disappointed Manson's hopes of breaking into the music industry.[6] Sharon Tate and four of her friends were murdered at the house by a group of long-established followers Manson had selected. It consisted of Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Tex Watson, who Manson had placed in charge. Linda Kasabian, who had only joined Mason's commune the previous month, went to the house but was told to stay outside. She was apparently taken because she had a valid driver's licence.[26]

The next night, August 9, 1969, Manson again selected a group, Van Houten was not chosen but asked to be allowed to go. Manson accompanied them. Van Houten, Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan, and Linda Kasabian went to to a house in Los Feliz, the home of Rosemary and Leno LaBianca. Leno and Rosemary LaBianca's home was beside where a long time close friend of Manson's original music industry contact Phil Kaufman had rented a house. Manson attended parties there with Kaufman when still friendly with him. Kaufman has always said this was no coincidence.[6][27][28][29][30][31] Manson entered the house with Watson, them left with Atkins, Grogan and Kasabian. Manson sent the others to kill a Lebanese actor who had had sex with Kasabian, but she led Atkins and Grogan to the wrong address.[26]

Krenwinkel and Van Houten found Rosemary LaBianca in a bedroom, to which she had retired while her husband had fallen asleep while reading in the living room. Watson put a pillowcase over Leno and Rosemary LaBianca's heads, and then tied the electrical cord from a lamp around their necks. Rosemary LaBianca started struggling; meanwhile, her husband, who had been tied up in the living room, started screaming as Watson began stabbing him. Rosemary grabbed the lamp and swung it at Van Houten, who fought with her and knocked the lamp away. Van Houten then held LaBianca down while Krenwinkel tried to stab her in the chest, but the blade bent on LaBianca's clavicle. Van Houten called for assistance from Watson, who entered the bedroom and stabbed Rosemary LaBianca several times. He then found Van Houten, handed her the knife, and told her to "do something" (since Manson had instructed Watson to make sure everyone actively participated). Van Houten stabbed Rosemary lower back and buttocks over a dozen times. Van Houten later told Dianne Lake that she had stabbed someone who was already dead. The autopsy indicated that some of the 47 stab wounds Rosemary suffered had been inflicted post-mortem.[3][18][32] Items taken from the house included a wallet with a credit card that was discarded on Manson's instructions; despite talking about leaving it where a black person would pick it up and implicate themselves in the murders of the LaBiancas by using the credit card, Manson actually had the wallet left in a womans rest room.[26]

On August 16 Van Houten was one of those booked after a raid on the Spahn Ranch by police investigating thefts. Manson suspected ranch hand Donald Shea and had him tortured and murdered.[33] The 'Family' partially moved to the Barker Ranch, where they drew attention to themselves by vandalism. Manson was arrested on October 12. By this time a motorcycle gang had informed on Manson group for the Tate killings. Van Houten stayed with another woman the desert, searching for the 'hole in the ground', before being arrested in December 1969. Unlike other members of the family Van Houten provided a great deal of information. Using the Mason family nicknames, during interviews with police Van Houten helped identify who had actively participated in the Tate and LaBianca murders, and who had been there but not killed anyone, thereby indicating that Kasabian was a crucial witness. Van Houten implicitly admitted to direct knowledge of the LaBianca murders in police interviews.[4][7]

Tex Watson, who had shot or stabbed all of the victims at the Tate and LaBianca murders and who inflicted most of the fatal or non survivable injuries, was not arraigned with the others at the main 'Manson' trial, which covered both the Tate and LaBianca murders. Manson was accused of orchestrating both attacks, but the only defendants at the trial whose murder charges were for actually inflicting injuries on the LaBiancas were Van Houten and Krenwinkel.[34] Unlike the others, Van Houten was not accused of the murders of Tate and her friends.[20]

Manson opposed his three female co-defendants running a defense that he had asked them to commit killings, Van Houten did not appear to take the court seriously (she later claimed to have been supplied with LSD during the trial) and giggled during testimony about the victims. Van Houten took the stand and admitted committing the murders she was charged with, but denied that Manson had been involved.[35] An often-cited example of how he seemed to exert control over Van Houten and the others was when Manson carved an X on his forehead she and the other two women defendants copied him. In the latter stages of the trial they stopped mimicking him, Bugliosi suggested because they realised it was making the extent of his influence over them apparent.[36]

Van Houten dismissed three defense lawyers in succession for claiming her actions were attributable to Manson's control over her.[37] When her lawyer was asking a expert witness about the effect of LSD on judgement, Van Houten shouted that "This is all such a big lie, I was influenced by the war in Vietnam and TV".[38]

On March 29, 1971 she was convicted of murder with the other defendants. During the sentencing phase of the trial, in an apparent attempt to exonerate Manson, Van Houten testified that she had committed a killing she was not in fact involved in.[7] She told a psychiatrist of beating her adopted sister, leading him to characterize her as "a spoiled little princess" and a "psychologically loaded gun", and was adamant that Manson had no influence over her thought processes or behavior.[39] Van Houten also told the psychiatrist that she would have gone to jail for manslaughter or assault with a deadly weapon without ever meeting Manson.[40] When her lawyer, attempting to show she felt remorse, asked if she felt sorrow or shame for the death of Rosemary LaBianca, Van Houten replied "sorry is only a five letter word" and "you can't undo something that is done".[7] In cross-examination Van Houten made admissions that were extremely damaging to her, conceding she may have have stabbed Rosemary in the neck and the back, thereby implicating herself in inflicting wounds while the victim was living, and a wound that severed the spine and might have been fatal by itself.[7] She vehemently denied acting on instructions from Manson, and said a court appointed attorney who "had a lot of different ideas on how to get me off" had told her to claim Manson ordered the killings.[7]

Van Houten was sentenced to be executed, she was the youngest woman ever condemned to death in California. No death row for female prisoners existed so a special unit was built. The death sentences were automatically commuted to life in prison after the California Supreme Court's People v. Anderson decision resulted in the invalidation of all death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972.[3][34] With murder (or manslaughter) convictions she was eligible for parole once she had served seven years.[41] For her to be released after 7 years her first parole hearing would have had to have granted her parole and the Governor not vetoed the decision. In his bestselling book, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi said that "his guess" was that all three women would be released after 15–20 years.[42]

She was granted a retrial in 1977 due to the failure to declare a mistrial when her lawyer died. Van Houten's defence argued her capacity for rational thought had been diminished due to LSD use and Manson's influence.[43] The jury could not agree on a verdict. According to what the jury foreman later told reporters, they thought it was difficult on the basis of the evidence to determine whether Van Houten's judgment had been unimpaired enough for a verdict of first degree murder rather than manslaughter.[43]

It was reported in news media that because of time already served, Van Houten could go free that year if she was convicted of manslaughter.[43][44] By law prosecutors are not allowed to mention the possibility of the defendant being released on parole when arguing for a murder rather than manslaughter conviction, because it is considered so prejudicial to the defendant.[45]

The prosecution in 1970-71 had emphasised that the motive had nothing to do with robbery, and the killers ignored valuable pieces of property. At Van Houtens second retrial the prosecution altered the charges by using the theft of food, clothing and a small sum of money taken from the house to add a charge of robbery, whereby the felony murder rule tended to undermine a defence of reduced capacity. She was on bond for a few months before being found guilty of first degree murder. Van Houten was given a life sentence that entailed eligibility for parole, which the prosecutor said she would one day be suitable for.[3][46][47]

By law life sentences are required to have the possibility for parole, and a parole board rejection of an application is phrased as allowing for a different decision in future if the inmate makes sufficient progress.[48]Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel (who were originally convicted along with Van Houten and Manson at the main trial) had both been found guilty of the most notorious crime, the murder of five people, including the eight-and-a-half months pregnant Sharon Tate, at 10050 Cielo Drive; in addition Krenwinkel was also convicted of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca while Atkins was also convicted of murdering Hinman. Manson's male followers have been been relatively successful at parole hearings.[3]Clem Grogan, convicted and given a death sentence by the jury for the torture-murder of Donald Shea with Manson, was freed in 1985.[49] Bruce Davis, also an accomplice of Manson in the killing of Shea, and with a second murder conviction for the Hinman killing, was given a parole board recommendation for release in 2010 although very few inmates with even a single conviction on a charge of murder had been able to obtain parole in California before 2011.[3][50][51][52]

After receiving her thirteenth rejection, in which the hearing concluded she posed "an unreasonable risk of danger to society", Van Houten took legal action. Judge Bob Krug ordered the board re-hear the application because their reasoning turned solely on the unalterable gravity of her offense and effectively gave her life without parole, "a sentence unauthorized by law". The judgement was overturned by a higher court, which said although parole hearings must consider evidence for an inmate being rehabilitated, a hearing had discretion to deny parole based solely on a review of the circumstances of the crime, if “some evidence” supported their decision.[17][41]

In 2013 Van Houten failed for the 20th time at a hearing. In announcing a decision to deny parole, the commissioner of the hearing board said that she had failed to explain how someone of her good background and intelligence could have committed such "cruel and atrocious" murders.[4][47] Van Houten will next be eligible to apply for parole in 2018.[3][47][53][54][55][56]

Van Houten's parole hearings appear on Court TV and attract nationwide media attention on comment from former prosecutors and relatives of her victims, and relatives of the victims of other killers.[53][57][58] Filmmaker John Waters has actively advocated for Van Houten's parole although he acknowledges that the horror in which Manson's female accomplices are still held means public support for her release may be futile.[13][34][59][60]

Leslie Van Houten was portrayed by actress Cathey Paine in the made-for-TV film Helter Skelter. The 2009 film Leslie, My Name Is Evil (released in some countries under the titles Manson Girl and Manson, My Name Is Evil) is partially based on Van Houten's early life and stars actress Kristen Hager as Van Houten. In Helter Skelter (2004 remake of the 1976 film) Van Houten was portrayed by actress Catherine Wadkins. A year earlier, in 2003, Amy Yates portrayed Leslie Van Houten in the film The Manson Family. Tania Raymonde will portray Van Houten in the 2014 film, "Manson Girls".